


the many identities of Dick Grayson (as witnessed by the FBI)

by elijay



Series: because there really isn't enough of Neal Caffrey being one of the Robins in our lives [3]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, White Collar (TV 2009), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Bruce will not be happy when he finds out, De-Aged Dick Grayson, De-Aged Neal Caffrey, Dick & Bruce tagged even tho Bruce isn't here yet, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Dick Grayson is Batman, Dick Grayson is Neal Caffrey, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Dick Grayson is Robin, Dick Grayson-centric, Gen, I couldn't resist, Identity Reveal, Neal Caffrey is Dick Grayson, Neal Caffrey-centric, Robin does the word thing YJ!Robin does, Secret Identity, Time Travel, Young Justice is only tagged because the Robin that shows up is that one, but Dick is right it's all his fault, confused and shocked, otherwise no significance, so is Bruce-Batman, the Justice League is mentioned/on TV, the white collar office is very confused, this is me finally doing a Neal is Dick story, though he'll probably be in the last chapter, why are those two different tags? does it even matter?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:22:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28525422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elijay/pseuds/elijay
Summary: Unknown to the FBI, Neal Caffrey is Dick Grayson, who is Nightwing, and was, at one point, Batman. When watching a Justice League fight on the white collar office's TV, Neal is enveloped in a bright flash of light, and when it dies down, Dick, age 13, who is Robin, is left in his place.Personally, Dick will forever claim it wasn’t really his fault, it was technically Bruce's.---Neal Caffrey is actually Dick Grayson.
Relationships: Diana Berrigan & Neal Caffrey, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Neal Caffrey & Clinton Jones, Peter Burke & Neal Caffrey
Series: because there really isn't enough of Neal Caffrey being one of the Robins in our lives [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1785382
Comments: 55
Kudos: 279





	the many identities of Dick Grayson (as witnessed by the FBI)

**Author's Note:**

> hi, why am i posting at, what, like 3am? no one can answer that.
> 
> this is me finally doing a Neal-is-Dick story! only Damian left out of the four. not that i'd stop with that. my Tim one is he has amnesia as in he forgets the last some years, my Jason one is he has amnesia as in he doesn't remember his past, and this one, my Dick one, is time travel! or de-aged Neal/Dick. not sure yet. if i made it time travel, i could have it so that Dick as Neal actually goes into the past as well, that might be fun. we'll see, let me know what you guys would think.
> 
> anyway, enjoy!

Peter’s not worried as he watches the Justice League yet again battle a multitude of villains on the TV down in the office’s bullpen. The Justice League have never failed them before. Peter’s not a hardcore fan - not like Blake, he observes, who’s eyes are glued to the screen - but he has a quiet, unwavering belief in them. The League deals with the supervillains and alien invasions, Peter and the FBI deal with the common human criminals, thieves, and killers.

It’s a simple, fundamental relationship, at its core, and it works, and so Peter believes in it.

Then, on screen, Batman is hit by a glowing beam, and Blake lets out a horrified gasp as he goes down hard. Peter’s eyes snap back to the screen as he watches, now concerned. Batman doesn’t go down often. He’s the only human with no powers one of the lot - supposedly, anyway - but somehow, he seems just as invincible as Superman or Wonder Woman.

Then Neal, behind him, lets out a gasp as well.

Peter doesn’t notice it isn’t a normal gasp until Neal’s hand comes down on his shoulder in an effort to support himself. He turns around just in time to barely catch Neal as he falls, and all of the sudden, everyone’s much more interested in Neal than Batman.

“Neal!” Peter barks out worriedly. Neal’s laying on the floor now, hazy blue eyes staring up at Peter in something Peter reads as uncomfortably close to pain. “Neal, what’s wrong? What’s happening?”

“P-Peter?” he gasps out, and Peter is just about to snap for someone to call 911 when Blake gasps again, this joined by Jones’ incredulous mutters and Diana’s uncharacteristic stuttering and other agents’ worried calls.

There’s a bright blue light coming from Neal. Peter scrambles away from him, reluctant to leave but knowing that strange glowing lights aren’t usually a good thing to get caught in, even when it’s - somehow - coming from his CI partner.

The light completely envelops Neal, and Peter closes his eyes because it’s so _bright_ \- he hears pained hisses coming from the others behind him as they no doubt do the same - and when he opens them again, he has to blink a few times to get the spots to begin to fade.

Then he looks to Neal, and doesn’t see him. Instead, there is a boy there, maybe twelve or thirteen judging by his size. He’s unconscious, and dressed in dark red, green, yellow, and black. There’s a cape on him. His black hair is messy, and his closed eyes are covered by a dark mask.

“It’s _Robin_!” Blake exclaims after a pause of shocked silence.

Peter growls, “But where’s _Neal_?”

He returns to where he was before the flash of light, except now he’s kneeling at Robin - as in the goddamn _Batman and Robin_ \- instead of Neal Caffrey. He exchanges a look with Diana, who’s come to crouch at the boy’s side as well, and then reaches for the mask.

“What are you doing?” Blake says, sounding scandalized.

“Taking his mask off,” Peter responds, now tugging on the edges to peel them off.

“But that’s _Robin_.”

“Who appeared right where Neal was, in a flash of light, and now Neal is nowhere to be found,” Peter glares, even if he’s not actually looking at Blake. “Even if that hadn’t happened, Robin is a vigilante - a _child_ vigilante. He is technically breaking the law. I will take this mask off, and then we’ll take his weapons off of him and put him in a conference room.”

“And we should probably call the League,” Diana adds.

Jones glances up at the TV. “The League looks busy,” he says.

Diana replies with, “When they’re not busy, then,” just as Peter works the mask of the boy’s face. He studies the boy, the lines of his face looking familiar. The rest of the office goes silent, also staring at the boy. Then Diana speaks, “No… that’s…”

“It’s Neal,” Peter breaths.

“It can’t be,” someone calls. “That’s _Robin_.”

“It’s _Neal_ ,” Peter snaps. Robin must be at _least_ a decade and a half younger than Neal, but it’s him, Peter sees as clear as day now.

Robin groans, and rolls over onto his stomach as he groggily gets his arms propped up underneath him. “God, B, did you catch the plate of the car that hit me?” he asks. “No wait,” he amends, groaning again, “make that the truck that hit me, shit.”

His eyes open finally, and Peter sees the exact moment they clear and the boy in front of him - Robin, _Neal_ \- comprehends the situation. Not even a heartbeat after that, Robin flips himself up off the ground onto two hands before springing onto a desk, his back to no agents, landing evenly and crouching, a batarang finding itself sliding into his hand in a flash.

“Holy shit,” someone says. “Holy _shit_.”

Robin reaches with his free hand up to his touch where his mask would usually be, and then looks like he wholeheartedly agrees with the previous declaration. “ _Shit_ ,” he says. “Batman’s gonna _kill_ _me_.”

Robin’s eyes, a charming bright blue everyone can see as plain as day, are undoubtedly also Neal’s.

\---

Robin - who’s actually _Neal!_ \- absolutely refused to part with any of his weapons, and also demanded Peter hand him his mask back.

When Peter does hand him his mask back - there are security cameras in the bullpen, he can use those later - he takes a small bottle out of his belt and sprays it on before fitting it back on. As he does this, he mutters, “Be turbed, be turbed. It’s not like B’s actually gonna kill me, just… ground me till I’m eighteen.”

“Turbed isn’t a word,” Peter says automatically.

Robin’s now-masked eyes shift to him quickly. He replies swiftly, “Why not? If discouragement is the opposite of encouragement, then shouldn’t the opposite of disturbed be turbed?”

Peter has nothing to say to that except, “That’s not how it works,” still running on response autopilot.

“Well,” Robin says, undeterred by this statement, “that doesn’t make any sense.”

Peter just shakes his head.

Robin scowls, and his head tilts up. “English is so _weird_ , come on, you’ve gotta admit it.”

They just stare.

“Okay, fine, not willing to argue about English with me,” Robin snarks, and only now does Peter see the vulnerability and uncertainty in his stance. He is, it’s clear now to Peter, deeply unsettled by the unknown situation he has awoken to. “Can someone tell me what’s going on, then?”

Peter steps forward, taking the initiative. “I’m Agent Peter Burke with the FBI, white collar crimes division. You’re in our office. Why don’t we go up to my office and talk about this a little more privately?” When Robin nods, after a quick moment of thought, and hops down from the desk, Peter also gestures for Diana and Jones to join them. “Blake, keep an eye on that fight, let us know if it ends,” he calls as they leave.

“Got it, boss,” Blake mutters, eyes not leaving Robin until the boy himself is out of his sight.

In less than a minute, they’ve trailed up the stairs to Peter’s office, shut the doors, and closed the blinders on the windows on the office-side so it is a bit more private.

Then the three FBI agents turn to Robin, who shifts uncomfortably, but, to his credit, only crosses his arms and says nothing.

Peter sighs. “Alright, uh, Robin, I’m going to be frank with you. It’s very possible you may have... time travelled.”

Robin’s eye lenses widen. “Time travelled?” he echoes, his arms coming down to his sides. He looks inexplicably worried for a moment, and then Peter can see him visibly gather himself and paste on a metaphorical mask. It looks nothing like the instantaneous, smooth way in which Neal switches to a mask for a con. 

Now, with this revelation, Peter is wondering how much of Neal is a mask of itself.

“Okay,” Robin says, voice level and calm, “why do you think this?”

“Because one moment, our consultant Neal Caffrey was standing watching the Justice League fight on TV like the rest of us, Batman gets hit by an energy beam and Caffrey drops to the ground, emits a bright light, and then you’re there instead of him,” Diana says wryly. “When we took your mask off, we realised you were him, and, well, he’s not a kid.”

“Batman got a hit by a beam?” Robin picks out of that explanation with surprisingly single-minded focus. “Is he okay? Is he hurt?”

Jones raises an eyebrow. “We don’t know, it happened only minutes ago on live TV.”

“Where?”

“Metropolis,” Jones answers.

“Was Supes there?”

A couple of eyebrows are raised at the nickname, but Jones still answers, “As far as I could tell, most of the main members of League were there.”

“Who?”

Peter’s the one raising an eyebrow now. “Uh, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Martian Manhunter, Zatanna the magician woman, as well… the only main member who wasn’t there was Nightwing, but that’s not surprising considering he’s not been seen with the League for a while. Could be others, but you’d have to ask Blake."

“Did you just say Zatanna? As part of the League?” the child vigilante asks, full of questions. “And who’s Nightwing?”

“Yeah, Zatanna is part of the League,” Diana confirms. “All we know about Nightwing is that he works closely with Batman, was heavily involved with leading the League for a little while, and is based in Blüdhaven and Gotham.”

“...he works with Batman?” Robin murmurs, gaze cast downwards. “Where am I?” he wonders out loud, quietly.

At the sight of this small kid, Robin or not, looking lost and slightly hurt, Peter can’t bring himself to be mad at Neal. Instead, he kneels down so he can look up at Robin. “You’re Neal Caffrey, a consultant with the FBI.” Peter hesitates, also can’t bring himself to be dishonest with the kid, and then sighs and corrects himself, “A _criminal_ consultant with the FBI. Art thief, forger, and con man, to be specific.”

Robin stares at him for a long moment, before he laughs, and it’s a slightly hysterical sound. “It sounds like I took after Catwoman,” he jokes weakly.

Peter stays silent as he recollects himself, as do Jones and Diana.

Just as Robin looked to be together enough for Peter to start asking some questions, he hears Blake yell from down in the bullpen. The three FBI agents rush themselves to the doorway to see what’s going on, but then they hear a thud from behind them, and when they spin back around, Robin is on the floor, hands curled into tight fists and back arched, his face scrunched in pain.

“Neal!” Peter calls and rushes to the fallen boy’s side once more.

Robin doesn’t say anything, just curls into himself, and Peter, Jones, and Diana find themselves hovering and unable to help. Then, just like the first time, comes a blue light growing brighter and brighter. Peter covers his eyes with his hands even as he closes them, and thinks that this had better be Neal coming back, and that he’s going to have a lot of explaining to do.

Again, once he can open his eyes, he has to take a few seconds to blink out the spots. Unlike before, the person in place of his consultant is both not a child and not unconscious.

Nightwing is in front of them, glaring, escrima sticks at the ready and crackling with electricity.

**Author's Note:**

> ...sorry for the cliffhanger, but that's how most of these are probably gonna go. there will be at least four - Robin, Nightwing, Batman (that'll be a fun one), and Neal Caffrey. possibly five depending on my inspiration/motivation.
> 
> 'Blake' just a name i've seen around the fandom for a fill-in agent - i think they were in a couple episodes once? i'm not sure. anyway, i just needed a name and a JL fanperson, so.
> 
> like always when i start a multi-chaptered story: there are no guarantees on completion, nor completion anytime soon.
> 
> as usual, if you notice any errors, let me know. if you have any suggestions, feel free to suggest them but as always, no promises. ideas and comments almost always inspire me to write some, though.
> 
> (edit: also feel free to hop on our WC/B discord. we're pretty active and pretty friendly! click [here](https://discord.gg/SnjTSuvtds)!)


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